The fairy awaited Flora when she exited the test.
"Is it possible to take a break between the different tests, dear?" Flora asked. She had to admit that she only half-assed the support scenario and made mistakes because of her tiredness.
"Yes, of course. However, the accuracy of the predictions will sink when the examinee progresses in the meantime, so you have to finish the quest within a week."
"Excellent!" Flora checked the time with Aidan's help. "We have time for one or two short tests. Anything that can be finished within 20 minutes and without a + OV bonus to achieve?"
"The Single Target versus Area of Effect and the Direct Effects versus Effects over Time tests are in the same dome. With time dilation, you can take both."
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Single Target versus Area of Effect
1. Single Target
In which party role would you like to take the test?
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"Ranged Damage Dealer."
First, Flora encountered the fluffy pink monster with vicious claws again. Thankfully, she wasn't the masochist on duty and could fire at it from a comfortable distance, targeting its weak spots.
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2. AoE
In which party role would you like to take the test?
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"Ranged DD again."
A zombie horde attacked the fortification Flora knew from the Attribute test, so she just reenacted her performance with Hail and Lightning Storm.
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Would you like to see the result or try another party role?
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Flora felt ambiguous. The zombies were disgusting, but they also looked fun to slaughter.
"Alright. Give me a huge sword, and I'll do the AoE phase as a Melee DD."
The test granted Flora's wish, and she mowed through the zombie horde, cackling.
Unsurprisingly, the test rated Flora's fun higher for the AoE part.
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Direct Effects versus Effects over Time
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Three dummies appeared. One to Flora's left, one to Flora's right, and one in front of her. All of them ten meters away.
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The goal is to uphold the "poisoned" debuff on all of them for five minutes while generating a high amount of damage.
Are you ready to start?
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"Wait! What?"
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With your wood elemental spells, you can apply a debuff on opponents.
The test starts as soon as every dummy is poisoned and will stop if the five minutes run out or one of the dummies doesn't have any poison on him.
Are you ready to start?
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"No. I have to consult my AIs first." Frowning, Flora opened her skill tab. "So, what spells do we have that apply the poison effect?"
"Thorn Cannon, Riding the Ivy, Razor Leaves, and Poison Shield with a slight chance, Toxic Breath and Poison Lance with a mid-chance. Additionally, you could summon Elkoak, who has Thorn Cannon as well."
"What is the probability that the debuff is applied?"
"That depends on the resistance of the dummy as well as your Affinity. If you cast a Thorn Cannon, I can calculate it."
Three thorns, dripping with green poison, shot from Flora's hand and hit the dummy.
"The target would get the effect of Weakly Poisoned around 50%."
"Only 50%! How long does the debuff last?"
"10 seconds, Milady."
"The test is impossible. In 10 seconds, I can cast around five spells, six if I hurry. Even if I had only one dummy, there would still be a chance to fizzle with 50% −that would be one fail in thirty-two attempts on average. Alright, it's not the correct way to calculate the probability, but I'm doing it anyway, just to get a feeling for this mess: 5 minutes divided in 10 sec, which would be 6*5 = 30 chunks of 10 seconds. So IF there were only one dummy, the chances wouldn't be puke-inducing. However, with three… we can only trust in luck."
"The situation isn't as dire, Milady. The spells have a 100% chance to contaminate the target. 5 times Contamination will result in one stack Weakly Poisoned. When you reached Weakly Poisoned, you only have to hit it with a wood spell every 10 seconds to refresh the duration."
Flora rolled her eyes and signaled Aidan to carry on.
"You have experienced the stacking of debuffs when you swam in the ice water. First, you got cold, then a light chill, deep chill, and so on. Most secondary effects work similarly. You can add a second stack of poison if you either contaminate the target five times within 10 seconds or the 50% chance happens. After you have 5 stacks of Weakly Poisoned, it will change to Strongly Poisoned. The next stage is Weakly Toxic. Now, the target is so poisonous that the effect might spread to nearby enemies."
"How do I know whether the dummy is poisoned?"
"I will display a symbol with a timer for you, Milady. Green for contaminated, yellow for poisoned."
A yellow sign, similar to the biohazard warning, appeared next to the dummy's HP-bar.
Flora raised her eyebrows and shot at the other two dummies.
Now, two dummies had yellow signs and one a green.
"Two out of three is quite lucky for a 50% chance."
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Are you ready to start?
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"Not yet. Thank you." Flora strolled to a dummy and inspected it. The dummy had an earthen color. It could be made off clay or a fantasy version of it. "One problem solved. So, I'll fire up to five poison bolts on one, go to the next, up to four poison bolts on it− Only four because I have to go back to dummy one to refresh the effect− then add a fifth if necessary or go to the next dummy to stack the contamination up and hopefully don't forget to keep the poison alive on the other two… oh dear… And we haven't spoken about where I get all the mana! However, I have learned many skills that fill mana or reduce mana consumption in the last few days. Give me some numbers on my mana situation."
"One bolt costs 10 mana. Your mana pool contains 340 mana and your Mana-Battery 148. Refresh regenerates around 200 if cast below 30%, Pray 100, Access Leylines more than halves the expenditure for 30 seconds. That should already be enough."
"I don't think so. I can't use AoE because the dummies stand too far apart, so I will use a beam on one dummy. 5 mana/second that would be 300 mana for my left hand alone. Sorry, how does Access Leyline work when I channel the whole time? Will it count for all of the duration when I start during its runtime or does the mana cost change?"
"It'll change, Milady. So 30 seconds for 40% the cost, 60 mana, and 30 seconds full, 150 mana for a total of 210 mana. Please consider that the range of the beam is only 5 meters."
"Great. With the other hand, I will shoot bolts. Let's say three on one dummy. Then I'll switch to the other. No, that's too ambitious. Let's make it two each and one support spell every 10 seconds. That would make an additional 5 spells * 10 mana * 3 times rotations * 0.4 + 5 spells * 10 mana * 3 times rotations−another 210 mana if my brain doesn't lie. 420 mana for two hands, although we only regenerate 300 mana. My pool can tide us over for a bit, but we won't even make it to the 3-minute mark." Flora stared at her fingers. "Am I an AI? Usually, I'm not as good in mental arithmetic… 123 * 987 = no clue. Phew, I was worried for a second!"
"I haven't leveled Blur and Mingle and only Tag a bit, but Bloody Mana would be an option, Milady. A very good option, if I take the plan into account. We could produce over 150 mana per minute with it."
"Great. All the spells have a one-minute cooldown, right? So we start with Access Leyline for the first 10-second rotation, then Pray, then Refresh, then Bloody Mana. So we have two more free slots. If I stand right next to the central dummy, I can use melee skills like Righteous Strike. The other two dummies should be in reach from there. Do the Pythagoras for me, dear."
"Yes, Milady. They are 14.1 meters away from the central dummy."
"We'll optimize for repeating this rotation for eternity without the poison fizzling out or running out of mana. I'll summon Elkoak as a failsafe and activate the Divine Radiance Aura to provide mana for him. I won't need a mech-suit, so we'll use the rest for turrets. Even the octopussies are too expensive. Damage will be only my third priority behind poison and mana."
They went over the plan once more and rearranged some things, mainly because of Re-Generate.
5 MR/min Elemental
7 MR/min Laser Turrets
3 MR/min Weapons (Plasma-sword, Wavering Wave Ring, Multitool-Scepter)
10 MR/min Aura (Divine Radiance)
"Test, I'm ready." Flora stood next to the central dummy with her plasma-sword in the left hand and the multi-tool in her right hand. The Wavering Wave Ring was, like always, on her right hand.
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The five-minute timer will start as soon as all the dummies are poisoned.
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"Phase one, stacking up the poison," Flora mumbled.
Green mist shot out of the sword, which seared the dummy.
Then Flora pelted the dummy to her right with Thorn Cannon. After the second spell, the poison was applied, but Flora had already cast the third spell. Now, she switched to the dummy to her left and loaded it up with poison.
"Phase One success. Start Phase Two, Milady."
…
The bonsai elemental stood in the middle of the triangle. Like a sweep hand, he rotated around his own axis, hitting one target after another with his Thorn Cannon.
From behind Flora, the turrets fired. They started strong with Rapid Fire, and the laser beams whooshed past the auntie.
Flora fell into a comfortable rhythm until she missed the left dummy. Immediately, her mind churned out the worst-case scenario. What would happen if she missed the next bolt as well? Then she would have to hit the dummy again? Would she be fast enough that she could hit the other dummy in time? Should she aim for it first?
Wildly, Flora fired Thorn Cannons between the two dummies, overcompensating.
"Aito, help me finding back into the rhythm!" Flora cried for help.
"Recharge," appeared on the HUD.
Then, the arrow marked the right dummy, and after Flora hit it two times, the left.
Flora regained her beat, and her tense muscles relaxed. Her mana-pool had suffered, but everything was back on track.
"Status."
"Two stacks of strong poison on the center dummy, three stacks of weak poison on the right, two on the left. Your Mana is stable at 55% tendency rising and your Concentration full, Milady."
"Elkoak, aim ten Cannons at the left dummy. Afterward, do your rounds again."
For the next few rotations, Flora just concentrated on her casting. She had noticed that she had mixed up foci on a few bolts and had cast them with her multitool instead of the ring. The spell worked fine even with the wrong focus but didn't get the damage bonuses of the weapon and weapon skill.
"Status."
"Two stacks of weak toxicity on one and four stacks of light poison the other dummies and your Mana and Concentration bars are full, Milady. You may switch out Righteous Strike for an aggressive option."
Flora didn't feel comfortable with taking more risks at the moment and continued. Although the spells were repetitive, she enjoyed the activity. It felt like juggling, sure you did nothing but throwing balls in the air, but the flow and harmony were the challenge and goal. Additionally, there was the danger if you messed up just a bit, the whole thing would crumble.
As the clocked ticked, the pressure on Flora rose. Her concentration waned, and mistakes happened. Random thoughts popped into her mind like toasts out of a toaster. She had no time to eat them, not to mention to digest them. How much damage did the poison do in comparison to the damage of the bolt? If she would use Transfer STA, would both parts of the damage transferred to the tank? If yes, when would the aggro shift−when the damage over time ran out or every second? And how did this nefarious stacking work? Her brain overheated.
Flora soldiered on and that the poison stacks on the dummies were high enough to buffer some errors helped.
Finally, the five minutes ended.
"Great job, team!" Flora cheered.
"Congratulations, Milady. You confused the foci only 9% of the time, and you exceeded your DPS record−if you would have generated this rate in the field, you would have obtained a very nice achievement with +1 OV to both Power attributes. I suggest you let Aito research a suitable target in the Cradle. One last thing: The Animator course starts in 20 min."
"Excellent. Aito, please look for it." Flora beamed, reveling in the feeling of relaxation after a straining exercise. "We have to hurry. Dear Test, do you have enough data for a result? You may take the data of the melee DD party role for direct damage."
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No. Yes. No. Error.
Please wait until the error is resolved.
We apologize for your inconvenience.
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"Oh, poor dear! Take your time, and don't stress yourself out. We'll come back in five hours."
When Flora jogged out of the room, she left behind an AI desperate for more processing power.